Worcester cyber café resets to meet new rules

People walk into the Net Play Cyber Café at 560 Lincoln St. yesterday.

Around the time a state law went into effect Nov. 1 banning sweepstakes “cyber cafés,” a business opened at 560 Lincoln St.

Net Play Cyber Café and Sweepstakes had been there until it closed some time ago. The state considered similar businesses illegal and tried to close them.

Net Play opened in the same place in the past week with customers sitting at what looked to be gaming machines similar to those used by the previous business. But instead of a sign reading “Sweepstakes,” the signs on the 40 machines there now say “Skills Games.”

Asked if it's the same Internet café that had been there earlier, an employee said now it's a “game of skill” rather than a sweepstakes. Winners get gift cards instead of the cash they got before, she said.

Under the outlawed business model, customers bought Internet time — which Attorney General Martha Coakley said was a ruse — and then got to play the electronic games with cash prizes. On Monday, the old machines sat darkened and unused near the new “games of skill.”

The employee refused to say how long the business had been open and told a reporter to leave. She would not allow him to play any of the games, saying the business does not want to be in the newspaper.

She referred any further questions to a manager who she said would be there the next day. The next day, Christine, who said she was a manager but did not give her last name, said she had no comment, would not say who at the company would comment, and wanted nothing in the newspaper.

The law that passed Aug. 1 and went into effect this month more carefully defines the “sweepstakes” operations that it bans and increases penalties to a fine of up to $250,000 per machine or up to 15 years in prison or both. Responding to the games that flourished in Worcester and across the state last year in which owners said that prizes were awarded based on chance only and were not influenced by anything a player did at the game machine, the definition now includes “a simulated game terminal as a representation of the prizes associated with the results of the sweepstakes.”

Meanwhile, another sweepstakes business, City Cyber Café, at 120 Stafford St., closed when the new law went into effect. A sign at City Cyber Café directs customers to “come visit us now at 560 Lincoln St.”

Corporation papers on file with the secretary of state have been changed, listing Robert S. Murphy Jr., a lawyer at Bacon Wilson in Springfield, as the resident agent for BMG Operations, whose office is at 560 Lincoln St. Mr. Murphy was a lawyer for Rejean Theberge, the licensee for City Cyber Café on Stafford Street and who also offers sweepstakes games in Springfield and Holyoke. Mr. Murphy has since become a judge in the state's district courts.

Matthew Durand of Wilmington, N.C., listed as BMG's manager, said yesterday that he sold the business at least six months ago, but he refused to say who bought it.

A sign at City Cyber Café on Stafford Street said that state regulations persuaded management “to temporarily cease and desist operations.” It thanked customers for their patronage and support and said their accounts “will stay validated until we solve this problem through legal venues.”

“We hope to resolve all issues through our court systems and re-open as soon as possible.” It promised, “We will be back better than ever.”

William T. Breault, an opponent of sweepstakes cafés, is grateful for the state new law and was unhappy to learn that the Lincoln Street operation had reopened.

“What they were offering was a rip-off,” said Mr. Breault, chairman of the Main South Alliance for Public Safety. “If they're basically doing the same thing under the color of something else, I hope the AG will look at it and do something.”

The attorney general's office did not answer questions about the Net Play Cyber Café. “Our office continues to investigate Internet cafes and other operations that appear to be in violation of Massachusetts law,” the AG's office said in a statement.

“Those who continue to operate in violation of the law could face criminal prosecution or civil penalties and should cease operation. In many instances, local law enforcement is investigating unlawful gaming activities, and we continue to work with local officials to take action where appropriate.”

Even under the law before Nov. 1, the attorney general took sweepstakes operations to court, civilly and criminally. In August a former Fall River city councilor, Leo Pelletier, 66, and Linda Pelletier of Spring Hill, Fla., pleaded guilty to gaming charges. They were given two years' probation, and their company, New England Internet Cafes, was ordered to forfeit $100,000 in connection with Internet cafes they operated in Fall River and Fairhaven.

In June 2011, the License Commission voted 3-0 to reject entertainment licenses for City Cyber Café and two other planned sweepstakes cafes. Then-chairman Peter M. Lukes said the commission would not give a license to a business that was illegal, although Mr. Murphy said his clients' businesses were not illegal.

In any case, the License Commission said it has no jurisdiction over such businesses and withholding the entertainment license only prevented playing televisions and radios there. The city previously granted Net Play Cyber Café an entertainment license before it understood the nature of the business there.